Colleen+Roe


 * SUMMARY: "Colleen," age 21, died of respiratory arrests on March 8, 1972 after a safe and legal abortion performed in New York.**

"Colleen" Roe is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion.

New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern did not shate the abortion lobby's elation about the new law. Rather, he expressed concern that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women. He was right.

In early March of 1972, Colleen took advantage of the new law and traveled from Michigan to New York for a [|safe and legal abortion]. She was 21 years old and 20 weeks pregnant.

Colleen had a history of asthma. During the abortion, she went into respiratory arrest. She died March 8.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion made New York an abortion mecca until the //Roe vs. Wade// Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Colleen," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-//Roe// New York:


 * "Judy" Roe, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * @Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * @Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
 * "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
 * @Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
 * "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
 * "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
 * "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
 * "Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
 * Margaret Smith, June, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Annie" Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
 * "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
 * "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
 * "April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
 * "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
 * "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
 * @Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
 * "Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
 * "Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
 * "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
 * "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
 * "Roxanne" Roe, May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives
 * "Danielle" Roe, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream

With the proliferation of fly-by-night outpatient abortion in the state, New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern expressed concern that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women. Certainly they were not reducing the real danger to women, merely the perceived risk. As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data. The women's deaths were just demoted from homicide, punishable by law, to mere medical mishaps not worth anybody's concern. What ended with legalization wasn't women dying from abortions; it was society caring if they died.

LDI Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, //Obstetrics and Gynecology//, 43:3, March 1974, 322. include component="tagCloud"

Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 â€“ June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 322.

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